Let’s hear it for the honourable resignation

In these days of greed and self-interest, those who fall on their swords
deserve our respect

In the bubble bath of venality that is the Premier League, where even non-triers can soak up unimaginable riches, old-fashioned integrity appears too rarely on the score sheet. Loyalty exists, but only if accompanied by a seven-figure cheque.

Last week, however, the game’s forces of darkness suffered an uncommon setback. Ian Holloway, Crystal Palace’s manager, resigned, admitting that he was worn-out and no longer up to the job. What’s more, he did so without the aid of a pit-bull lawyer making demands with menaces on the club’s treasurer.

The south London team has won just one game all season, yet chairman Steve Parish did not want Holloway to quit and paid tribute to the manner of his exit: “He leaves with his head held high. Most would carry on taking the money. He has fallen on his sword. It was honest, noble and decent of him.”

Honest. Noble. Decent. Jeepers, when was the last time you heard an endorsement like that in football, business, politics or the media for that matter?

Compare and contrast with events at JP Morgan, the top-flight investment bank, whose chief executive, Jamie Dimon, remains at the helm even though his company has just reached a $13 billion settlement with US state and federal authorities over claims that it mis-sold mortgage-backed investments.

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The unprecedented smack relates largely to the sins of two businesses, Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual, acquired by JPM at the nadir of the financial crisis. Mr Dimon was in charge when those deals were done. He approved the invoices.

Mr Dimon may not have been involved directly in illegal activities but if you collect a fortune in good times (and Mr Dimon certainly did), there ought to be no dodging the bullet when the firm’s reputation is trashed. In return for $20 million a year in salary and bonus, accountability is the least shareholders should expect. Except, perhaps, at JPM. Unless Mr Dimon experiences an overnight epiphany, the smart money is not on a dignified exit. His sense of entitlement appears to dwarf any inclination towards personal responsibility.

High-profile resignations make headlines on a regular basis but, in a world where legality and morality are diverging concepts, it’s hard to recall more than a handful of recent examples that represented truly exemplary behaviour.

Having presided over the Newsnight fiasco in the wake of the Jimmy Savile scandal, the BBC’s director-general, George Entwistle, threw in the towel, telling reporters: “I have decided that the honourable thing to do is to step down from the post.”

The giveaway was his self-validating claim to be acting honourably. It sounded suspicious and we have since discovered why. Attached to Mr Entwistle’s gesture was a compensation demand for going quietly that now looks like a lottery win. He left with £450,000, double the amount specified in his contract, one year’s health insurance and nearly £50,000 to cover legal bills and communications advice.

As Margaret Hodge, chairman of the Commons public accounts committee, noted: “He took a public job. He is highly remunerated. He failed in 54 days and then he gets incredibly rewarded for failure.” If Mr Entwistle’s terms and conditions applied to ordinary employees, I suspect the economy would be awash with high-minded individuals offering to leave their workplaces immediately in limousines laden with cash.

A resignation that involves screwing taxpayers for a king’s ransom does not pass the ethics test. Neither do resignations preceded by dishonourable activities. Some of the MPs who stepped down following the expenses debacle tried to dress up their departures as displays of “doing the right thing”. Others hoped to retain honour and dignity by claiming to be victims rather than culprits.

Before resigning as Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith let it be known she had been “hurt” by criticism that followed revelations about her dodgy claims, including one for her husband’s adult movies. The voters of Redditch rightly concluded that there was nothing honourable about Ms Smith’s resignation and she was thrown out at the 2010 general election.

So, put on your thinking caps, who has resigned honourably in recent times from a position of great influence? Three come to mind.

Estelle Morris resigned as education secretary in 2002 after a row over A-level marking. She admitted that she was not effective in the role: “I’m not having second best in a job as important as this.”

Robin Cook quit as Leader of the House in 2003 over Britain’s looming involvement in the Iraq war. His valedictory observation, “Iraq probably has no weapons of mass destruction in the commonly understood sense of the term”, was wholly vindicated.

Gavyn Davies resigned as BBC chairman in 2004 after the broadcaster had been criticised by Lord Hutton for a report on the unlikely existence of Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction. Mr Davies did not accept all Hutton’s findings and could simply have demanded that heads roll lower down the chain. Instead he concluded: “There is an honourable tradition in British public life that those charged with authority at the top of an organisation should accept responsibility for what happens in that organisation.”

At that time, I was working for the BBC and was impressed by the class with which Mr Davies took it on the chin. Interesting, don’t you think, that the current chairman, Lord Patten, has a rather different approach?